Bridging the cultural divide with sensitivity

As diversity increases in the labour market, employers seek guidance

While Canadians prize multiculturalism, cultural understanding is a very different animal.

Jerry Wood -- a Cree First Nations elder born and raised in Saddle Lake -- knows this firsthand: "I always tell people, 'We know all about you guys, but you don't know anything about us. You don't know our traits and values ... or why we are the way we are.' "

In 2002, he and his wife, Gisele Wood, began Eagle Spirit Aboriginal Cultural Programs to help individuals and organizations in the Edmonton area gain a deeper understanding of First Nations peoples. Their clients primarily come from all three levels of government, private industries, schools and agencies with aboriginal children.

The couple delivers class-based workshops, as well as first-hand experiences of First Nations cultures via traditional ceremonies, like sweat lodges.

The goal isn't to teach every nuance of aboriginal culture; this would be extremely difficult, given how many different, discrete cultures fall under this umbrella. Instead, the couple hopes for people to come away with an abiding respect for a diverse group of people who are different from themselves.

"To me, (cultural sensitivity) is accepting and acknowledging that we're not the same -- we're different," Gisele says. "To have that respect and move from, 'Isn't that person dressed weird,' to 'I wonder why that person dresses that way?'

"It's moving from a sense of looking at people in a way that's unacceptable, to being curious and wanting to find out."

Many employers are acknowledging the need to understand their aboriginal workers, particularly as this segment of the workforce grows.

According to the 2006 census, the First Nations population in Canada has grown by 45 per cent since 1996. The median age for aboriginal people is 27 and nearly half are 24 years old or younger. To put this in perspective: the median age of non-aboriginal people is 40.

Jerry points out that aboriginal workers will play an important part in the workforce as non-aboriginal workers retire en masse and the demand for labour increases. However, employers need to understand their First Nations employees. "I tell them, 'You have to know about us -- what makes us tick.' "

Just as the number of First Nations people in the workforce has grown, so has the number of foreign-born workers, both through immigration and foreign worker programs.

Edmonton's Q Bridge provides sensitivity training for a wide range of workplaces in Canada, but its specialty is helping foreign workers transition. The company was born during the boom when many companies -- particularly those in the energy sector -- began recruiting staff from around the world. The company helps with workplace language training as well as cultural sensitivity training.

Often Q Bridge begins preparing workers for Alberta workplaces before they've even arrived. At the height of the boom, Q Bridge had 15 classes being held in five different countries simultaneously. "It was too much," says Kim Harrod, a partner with the company. However, he says the company is better prepared for the next influx of workers, which could happen within the next few months, he says.

Harrod points out that teaching cultural sensitivity training to Canadian citizens can be very different from teaching foreign workers. Multiculturalism is valued in Canada and people tend to interact with people of different ethnicities, religions and socio-economic groups.

This can't be expected of all foreign workers. In some regions of the world, there can be many different cultures in a small geographic area, and they may not speak the same dialect or get along with one another. Yet in spite of centuries or millenniums of complicated history, they are expected to work side-by-side in Canada.

Sometimes these divisions can be overcome, but sometimes they can't, says Harrod. Certain religious orientations may prevent men from looking women in the eyes or speaking to them directly, for instance. While it's not ideal by Canadian standards, it's unrealistic to try to change people's cultural and religious mores, he argues.

"Diversity and tolerance are all about understanding and compromise, which is the perfect Canadian model," says Harrod.

Ironically, part of this means accepting that others may not adopt the same philosophy. Nonetheless, being flexible with workers who don't share some Canadian values isn't the same as tolerating bad behaviour, he notes. "We don't have to accept harassment or discrimination or blatant racism. But, we have to balance. We have to find compromise."

It can be a tough line to walk and so Harrod works with employers to create workplace harmony.

Employers are usually happy to find creative solutions since foreign workers make considerable contributions, he says.

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